I am constantly looking for ways to connect my fine art photography with my fashion photography. In fashion, the lighting and staging environment are often manipulated to create endless possible outcomes. But the open-ended quality of shooting with natural light and the streets of a city can never be surpassed. Just as when I am working on fine art photoseries, when shooting a model I love to return to the streets.

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One way to push oneself when shooting a model outdoors with a fashion team is to change your tools occasionally, and bringing the ALPA 12 MAX to a fashion shoot seemed like both a natural step and a beguiling challenge. All of my digital photography is medium format, so I am used to a slow pace when shooting. This enables a connection to happen through the eyes of the model with the lens, and trust in the photographer can be established. She makes a vision of herself that she holds with confidence in her own mind.

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Using the ALPA required time to focus carefully and a patient approach to the changing light. Shooting on a tripod required further time to perfect the framing. Adding new margins of time to the process of fashion photography allowed the normally fast-paced shoot schedule to breathe, and I believe that a certain calm and peace can be felt in the resultant images. The camera and the lenses played to their strengths – complex framing of architectural lines and light fall were represented with startling fidelity, and the urban backdrops began to offset the stillness of the model with quiet dynamism.

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